Characterization and deblurring of lateral crosstalk in CMOS image sensors

Lateral crosstalk in CMOS imaging arrays deter effective utilization of small pixel sizes (e.g., < 5.0 (mu)m * 5.0 (mu)m) now permitted by technology scaling. A simple measurement setup for empirical characterization of lateral crosstalk in CMOS image sensors is presented. A demonstration of deblurring operations based on the obtained blur model of lateral crosstalk is also provided. Several well-known linear deconvolution filters are employed in the demonstration. The tradeoffs in sharpness restoration, high-frequency noise amplification, and the intensity clipping effect in the design of linear deblurring operation for the application of lateral crosstalk are illustrated.